With the warming weather, I’ve spent some time removing wiring, disassembling the brake (no clutch) and taking apart the steering. It’s clear there is more work than I anticipated, so eWillys will likely drop to an every-three day event or so, especially with Ann pretty much bed-bound for the time being (aggravated shoulder and migraines from the season changing). So, I have limited time.

Back to the FC … Formerly, the steering shaft used three knuckle joints to go from the steering wheel shaft, make a 90 degree turn to head towards the passenger side and over the frame, then a roughly 70 degree turn to head along the frame before reaching the rack and pinion.

To make those turns, the column began its first angle while in the cab, which caused it to dive into the floor near the brake pedal. Given I am moving the break pedal into it’s original location (with a dual brake master cylinder following this strategy** .. see bottom of post for additional note), that means I want to make a straight shot from the steering wheel to the floor, before making my turn under the floor. But, to do that, I need something to make a ninety degree steering turn. It turns out that in 2019, Flaming River built an award winning product to do just that.

Here’s how it looked before I disassembled it:

Here’s the dash off and much of the wiring removed:

Here’s where the brake was positioned (easier to see with parts removed):

This shows it with the floor panel removed:

From the underside, with most of the column removed, it looks like this:

This is the best pic. It shows how I need to go over the frame, travel about 10″, then make a 90 degree angle upward, with a slight angle toward the back.  The best solution seems the most expensive. Note the shaft isn’t bent; that’s an optical illusion due to the wide-angle.

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The tour jeep bed is now on rollers so I can moved it around. In the meantime, I drove the chassis outside so I could blow off the dust (a little chilly for washing it just yet).

Looking more closely at the transfercase, the tag on it has been removed, but it looks to me to be an NP 207, but I’ve never worked on these, so I could say for sure. After doing some research online, I see one challenge to making the 207 usable is that there isn’t a cable setup for shifting being offered as an option.

Moreover, some forums suggest the 207 is pretty weak and the 231 is a better option (for which there is a cable option). However, most likely any cable option will have to be a custom install anyway, as the cable length will need to be long enough to reach the cab area. Anyone have thoughts on this? Is the 207 good enough? if in 4WD low range is the 207 strong enough to deal with the weight of real trail jeeping?

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With winter landing hard these past two weeks, along with sub zero temps for a few days, about a foot of snow, and our well-water-system freezing up for 48 hours, the FC project got placed on hold. With warming temps the last few days, I returned to working on the jeep.

Here’s where I am at currently. I’ve removed the doors, the carpet, the seats, and the bolts holding the rear bed. I now have to build a frame work to pulley the bed off of the chassis. Pulling the bed was necessary anyway, as I need to figure out how to hook up the low-range shifting mechanism.

As noted earlier, the problem I faced was that the rear seats weren’t comfortable and weren’t tall enough to give the visibility to passengers I wanted. Moreover, the floor is uneven and was carpeted, making cleaning of the floor a more difficult chore than it ought to be. Finally, the rear wheel wells make the far rear seats unusable for most adults.

After much thought, I have decided to build a new floor as one big one-height platform, raising it all to the height of the rear section, which also makes it as high as the original FC Tour Jeep rear beds (per Craig’s measurements). The platform will also be shifted back about five inches, which puts the second row of seats a little more over the rear wheel wells so that the far rear passengers will have more leg room. The rear wheel well will become more circular, which harmonizes more with the front wheel wells. This also better alights the rear of the bed with the rear bumper.

Currently, the plans have me saving the roll cage, which I can use as a template for the bed, and trimming the four rear doors so that they can be reinstalled on the new bed.

Another advantage of shifting the bed a little farther back is that it provides more room behind the cab and radiator to breathe, which should help pull some of the engine smells away from passengers in the back.

Here is a pic showing the before and photoshopped-after-look of the proposed changes.

Here are some more pics of the Tour Jeep thanks to Ann.

David and Ann.

The test drive with Andrea. That was her first ride in it!

a ride. That was her first ride in it!

Andrea and David finishing the test drive.

Jesse with George Washington (Ann’s cousin’s dog).

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